Photo: Getty Images
SANTA ANA (CNS) - A 30-year-old Anaheim man was charged today with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in Riverside County last year and attempting to kidnap a 13-year-old girl walking home from school in Anaheim last month before leading police on a high-speed chase.
Andrew Giovanni Pio was charged with single counts each of kidnapping to commit a sex offense, assault of a minor with the intent to commit a sex offense, robbery and lewd act on a child 14 or 15 years old, all felonies, as well as a misdemeanor count of evading a peace officer.
The alleged attempted kidnapping happened on March 31 at around 2:45 p.m. in the 2600 block of West Ball Road, according to Sgt. Shane Carringer of the Anaheim Police Department.
Authorities say the girl was walking home from Dale Jr. High School when she saw a man, later identified as Pio, sitting in a parked truck. Pio left the truck and allegedly tried to force her into the passenger seat of his truck, Carringer said.
The girl managed to fight off her would-be kidnapper and fled the scene, he said. Pio is accused of taking the girl's cell phone, prosecutors said.
The truck was described as a white pickup with a gray tool rack in the bed of the truck, which was possibly a Toyota Tundra or Ford 150, he said.
At about 2:30 p.m. Friday, police tried to make a traffic stop on a truck being driven by Pio in Brea. The truck matched the suspect vehicle police were searching for.
Pio was finally arrested after leading police on a pursuit when the California Highway Patrol laid down a spike strip on the Santa Ana (5) Freeway at La Paz Road, police said.
Pio is accused of sexually assaulting the 15-year-old girl on Nov. 1 in Riverside County, prosecutors said.